


All a Dream

by lightningfury



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: A Sorceress Did It, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, all a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27532108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningfury/pseuds/lightningfury
Summary: The last thing Squall remembers is a beautiful field of flowers and Rinoa holding him...NO...no the last thing he remembers...is...where is he? Seifer? An infirmary? There's a hole in his shoulder...from the parade? Was it all a dream?
Relationships: Seifer Almasy & Fujin & Raijin, Seifer Almasy & Squall Leonhart
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Squall jerked awake with a shout and then groaned in pain as his wound throbbed. He reached a hand up to touch the thick bandage over his right shoulder with a puzzled frown. ‘Wound? My wound from…the parade? Why? What happened?’

He looked around to find himself in an unfamiliar infirmary but the Garden insignia was everywhere so he wasn’t too concerned yet. Then Seifer walked in.

“Squall! You’re awake. Hey he’s awake.” He spoke to a man in a doctor’s coat off to the side who’d been treating some other students. Then Seifer came and kneeled beside Squall’s bed.

Squall’s mind flashed through scenes of torture, battles, hostage situations, and sycophantic behavior to a mind controlling sorceress but when he looked into this Seifer’s eyes his mind settled and he remembered Seifer as his roommate, his rival, his sparring partner. This Seifer’s eyes were clear. The big brute was concerned. He was happy Squall was awake. He helped Squall sit up and propped the pillows up behind him as the doctor walked in.

“Hello there. Welcome back to the land of the living. Just a few things and then I’ll check your wound. Name, rank and serial number?”

“Sq-“ Squall started coughing surprised at his dry throat. Seifer was there with a glass of water tinted green by a potion. He helped Squall drink with only one hand steadying him. Finally Squall cleared his throat and answered. “Squall Leonhart. Rank 18. 41269”

“Good. Now let’s see that wound.” The doctor moved to the side of the bed and began to peel back layers of bandage.

Seifer moved to slide his right shoulder behind Squall’s left and took the other gunblader’s left hand in his own left giving him something to bear down on as the doctor poked and prodded at the edges of his wound.

“All right now can you make a fist for me?”

Squall curled the fingers of his right hand up with some difficulty. The pain was bad but he didn’t detect any problems. Neither did the doctor it seemed.

“Okay. Let’s do some nerve checking.”

Squall squeezed Seifer’s hand firmly. Not for the pain but because the process of checking him out revealed a swordsman’s worst fear. If he had lost any mobility in his arm or torso at all he wouldn’t be nearly as good a gunblader as he had been. He could retrain himself but he’d never be as good as he was perfectly healthy.

Squall slowly and painfully went through each motion the doctor asked of him. He glanced down at the hole in his chest once but was surprised to see it almost completely healed. The scar tissue was completely round and indented. The skin over the wound was so thin he could see the muscles and even the edge of a bone through the translucent film.

“You’re very lucky. It missed your lung by the barest margin. It’ll take some time to rebuild the muscle you’ve lost but your nerves and bones seem to still be in perfect alignment. You have your friend here to thank for that.” The doctor wrote down his findings on the clipboard after applying a sticky medicinal paste that began tingling immediately before rewrapping the shoulder. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him giving the two gunbladers privacy.

“Seifer?” Squall asked.

“Remember that elixir I won in a raffle last year?” Seifer looked away from him studying the smaller man’s hand in his own. “I used it on you.”

‘He was saving that for his first SeeD mission. I remember it sitting above his headboard for the last year.’ “Thank you Seifer.”

“It was nothing. Have to keep you healthy. Who else am I going to spar with?” Seifer tried to laugh it off but stilled when Squall squeezed his hand. Neither of them said anything but there was an unspoken understanding between them.

“How long have I been out?”

“A couple of days. Not long. Do you know where we are?”

Squall shook his head.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Images flashed through Squall’s mind. Mobile Gardens. Fighting Seifer. Matron. Rinoa unconscious. Walking to Esthar with Rinoa on his back. Being shot into space for a chance to heal Rinoa. Meeting Ellone. Leaping out into space to save Rinoa. Saving Rinoa again. Fighting Seifer. Fighting sorceresses. Fighting The Sorceress. That endless expanse. A field of flowers. He lifted a hand to clutch his suddenly pounding head.

“Squall?” Seifer’s concerned voice broke through the miasma of thoughts.

“I-I had a weird dream. I-I don’t think.” His wound. The parade. Was the parade the last real thing that happened? “We…were at a parade. To celebrate Sorceress Edea. Only we, that is, Irvine, Zell, Quistis, Selphie and I were there to assassinate her. Rinoa was there too. She’s General Caraway’s daughter. Said she dated you last year?”

“Yeah I ran around Timber for a while during my last suspension. You can’t swing a stick around there without getting involved in a resistance group. We had some fun.” Seifer shrugged. “What else do you remember?”

“We split up. Irvine and I were to head to the carousel clock to get the shot lined up. The others went to the arch to trap her float inside. Of course Rinoa wasn’t where she was supposed to be and Irvine and I had to go save her. Again.” Squall rolled his eyes. He was always saving Rinoa. Was it because he was her knight? ‘Wait. No. That didn’t happen, did it?’

“Well, well, well look who’s awake? Just in time for lunch too.” Irvine walked in with a smile and a couple of white paper bags swinging from his hand. “Sorry Squall I didn’t know you were awake or I’d have brought you something. I can run back?”

“Nah he can have one of mine for now.” Seifer offered. He knew Squall wasn’t very hungry when he first got up. Especially not after waking up in the infirmary.

Squall nodded as the food, burgers and fries were spread across his legs. He used his healing arm to snag a few of Seifer’s fries. The salty burst of flavor was like Heaven to his taste buds and he realized with a shock that he didn’t recall eating in his dream. Why hadn’t he noticed that?

“Squall was just giving me his mission report.” Seifer prompted him to continue with a wave of his burger before he took a huge bite out of it.

“We found the sniper rifle in the clock tower. Irvine got really quiet all of a sudden.” Squall looked up at the suddenly awkward Irvine. “I-I had this weird dream while I was out. In it you couldn’t shoot her because she was our Matron from the orphanage we all grew up in.”

Irvine jerked his head back like a startled horse. “What? No. I just. I freeze up. I’m a great shot. I never miss. Right up until I have to shoot a person. Then I freeze. I just don’t have the mental fortitude to be a sniper. I can’t disconnect. Not yet at least. I’m working on it. Your pep talk up there really helped.” Irvine smiled at him encouragingly.

“So you’re not an orphan?” Squall asked.

“Uh no. My folks are ranchers outside of Timber near the Galbadian border. I got two older brothers. My family’s huge.” Irvine took a big bite out of his own burger with relish.

“Huh?”

“We’re not orphans either Squall. Remember?” Seifer tentatively reminded him.

Squall looked at him a moment before he did remember. Granted both he and Seifer had been at Garden for so long it was easy to forget. “Not that they’re worth the name parents.”

“Right?” Seifer laughed bitterly.

Squall’s mother was a druggie whore whose pretty son spent a great deal of his young life either locked in a closet or roaming the streets hiding from the leering eyes of dirty old men. Seifer had been the beaten son of a junk shop owner. Similar in age and size Seifer and Squall took turns either scrapping in the streets with each other or hiding from one parent or the other. Till one day when they were seven salvation arrived. Balamb Garden was a new school taking all comers. The only exception being the need to bring your own weapons. So one night Squall robbed his mom and her pimp of money for boat tickets and Seifer snuck out of the junk shop with two dusty gunblades. They stowed away on the first ship to Balamb and luckily didn’t get discovered until they were in sight of the island. They’d leaped off the ship rather than pay in youthful foolishness and only the fact that the tide had been coming in saved them from a watery death as the heavy weapons tried to drag their young forms to the bottom of the bay. They’d crawled up the beach, haphazardly used their new weapons to fight off bite bugs until they reached the road then walked the rest of the way to the shiny new Balamb Garden. And they’d never looked back.

Squall frowned. How could he have forgotten that? ‘Shiva?’

A chilly, seductive voice breathed through the edges of his mind. ‘Someone has been here…’

“So you talk Cowboy into making his shot. I saw you leap from the tower and drive that sweet ass car into the arch’s gates.” Seifer prompted him to continue.

“You know the rest. We fought. I won.” Squall gave him a smug look.

“56 to 56 we’re tied again. Big deal.” Seifer scoffed.

“Then Irvine, and Rinoa for some reason, join me on the float and we fought the sorceress.” Squall’s hand went to his shoulder. “I remember falling backwards off the float, seeing Irvine’s hat haloed against the lights…then I woke up in this crazy dream…when it…ended I woke up here. It felt so real. It was very disorientating at first.”

Squall frowned. Even now the dream felt more like a memory. It felt like everything that had happened in the dream had happened in real life in real time. It was only now as he took a bite from Seifer’s burger and the mingling flavors of charred meat, ketchup, lettuce, onion and pickles burst into his mouth he could point to the inconsistencies. The odd passing of time. He spent three months floating aimlessly on the ocean after Garden became mobile but he spent almost all that time asleep on his bed or being way too introspective. He didn’t get up to train or slaughter training center monsters even once. Weird. He never stopped to eat. He didn’t even break into his secret stash of caramel. Not even when he was the most stressed out. Rinoa went from hating his cold-hearted mercenary guts to acting like this shy flirtatious girl who kept trying to get his attention. He’d given Zell his ring. His ring! He used his thumb to fidget with the metal as he thought about it. His jacket, shirt and gloves had been removed but someone, probably Seifer, had made sure his ring was placed back on his finger.

He finished the burger and ate more than half of Seifer’s fries and some of Irvine’s. Meanwhile they told him what had happened after he’d blacked out.

“It was like she had her fingers in my skull. At first it felt like she was just brushing her fingers through my hair but when I tried to do something she didn’t like it felt like she was digging her nails into my scalp. Fighting you was one thing. We’ve fought all our lives. Standing by while she straight up murdered you?” Seifer shook his head. “Don’t think I’m going soft or something on you Squally but you’re my partner, my rival, my brother. The blood of the battlefield is thicker than the water of the womb.” Seifer looked away while making this speech and kicked Irvine’s boot when he saw the cowboy smirking. “Ifrit helped. It’s like he was pushing her fingers out of my head. Anyway Cowboy dived off the float after you and I was right behind him. There was an open sewer right under the float and Rinoa was tugging us towards it. Then Chickenwuss, the Instructor and Messenger Girl joined us like right after that. Instructor tried to take over but Rinoa insisted she knew where she was going.”

“Seifer carried you the whole way with that giant ice shard sticking out of you. We figured the Sorceress would try to follow us and couldn’t stop to take care of you immediately. The ice was clean though and it kept you from bleeding out. Finally we came out of the sewers through this secret passage that let us back into the General’s office.”

“There I followed the Instructor’s orders for once. We all worked together to stabilize you. Chickenwuss pulled the ice free. Messenger Girl cast cures to keep you stable while Rinoa and the Instructor pulled your clothes off.”

“Then big hero here produces an elixir from his ass apparently. He pours the whole thing into your wound using his hand behind it to keep the fluid there. I’d never seen one work before. It was amazing. It literally rebuilt your bones, veins, nerves and muscles right before our eyes. Selphie cast one last cure to pull skin over it. Then we used what was left of your shirt to bandage it up.” Irvine grinned at Seifer but there was a tiny edge of awe there.

“Rinoa’s dad shows up then. Says the streets are in chaos and if we’re going to get out of the city now’s the time before the army can scramble enough to setup check points.” Seifer continued.

“He gave us this huge military vehicle and we headed straight back to Garden. Martine was not happy to see us but he figures we did our best. Apparently no one really thought we’d succeed.” Irvine shuffled awkwardly and Squall knew he was probably thinking it was due to his hesitation the mission had failed. He wasn’t quite right. It had been a combination of things.

“The Instructor, Chickenwuss, and Messenger Girl headed back to Balamb yesterday. I’m on suspension, again, for breaking out of the detention room. Seriously though. Fucking Forest Owls get three SeeDs and their big plan was KIDNAP THE PRESIDENT!? What kind of fucked up plan was that?” Seifer raged.

He was right however he’d gone about it his intentions had been good. There was no way three rookie SeeDs were up to a task that large. They’d have been lucky to be executed if they’d succeeded. The other Forest Owls would have and did run away and Miss Rinoa Caraway would have been spirited away by Daddy before her wrist could even get slapped. “Oh it was worse than that. You didn’t see our contract. ‘SeeDs on contract until Timber’s liberation. No substitutions.’” Squall commented sourly.

Both men looked shocked. “What was Headmaster Cid thinking?”

“I don’t know. You introduced Rinoa to him right? What happened in that meeting? Before he sent us off he mentioned it was an unusual request they were taking on for very little money. The faculty member stopped him before he could say anything else.”

“Yeah but after I introduced them the Headmaster reminded me that I wasn’t supposed to be there and I left. I didn’t see her again until the parade.”

“Maybe she traded in something other than money?” Irvine suggested with a leer.

Squall was about to come up out of the bed at that. How dare he talk about sweet, innocent Rinoa that way! But Seifer’s words stopped him.

“Maybe. I mean she is kind of wild. I mean she fucked me the same day she met me.” Seifer told them.

Squall turned to face him with a look of confusion on his face.

“Something tells me in Squall’s dream Rinoa was a bit different.” Irvine said speculatively.

“She was…sweet and innocent and happy. She was always trying to get me to talk to her or hug her. Oh and she was always getting kidnapped or knocked out or thrown into space and I had to save her.” He blushed remembering her sitting in his lap while….music played. Wait a minute. Where had the music come from? “She became a sorceress and I became her knight.”

“Wait thrown into space? Like outer space?” Irvine asked confused.

Seifer frowned. “You been reading my knight books Squall? That was my dream. You always scoffed at it.”

Squall frowned. His head pounded. He kept remembering that weird part of the dream at the end. Seeing Rinoa in the ball room over and over. Her sweetly pointing at the falling star. But there was static like a short in the cable and the music was distorted. He shook his head and felt Seifer cup the back of his neck.

“Squall? What’s wrong? What do you need?”

“My head hurts. That dream. Shiva. Shiva? Shiva help me!” Squall searched for the ice goddess in his head and relaxed when he felt the welcome balm of her soothing chill creep along his brain. “Shiva. You said someone was here in my head. What happened?” He could only hear her vaguest whispers.

“Squall you know you have to meditate to talk to Shiva. Lay down. I’ll talk you into the trance.”

“In the dream I never talked to Shiva. I’ve always talked to Shiva. Why didn’t I talk to her?”

“Sounds like something was keeping you from her.” Irvine muttered but stood back and watched. Quistis had tried to explain this process on the way to the Tomb of the Unknown King. Squall had given him Diablos to junction but he couldn’t access the devil’s full potential because he couldn’t interact with him like the others could. Rinoa was apparently some kind of freak in the other’s opinion because she could connect so easily. It was bizarre.

“Shhhhhhh. Relax. Shiva’s realm is cold. So cold. The snow is deep and soft. Let her embrace you. Let her take you away. Sleep Squall. Sleep in the dark, cold embrace of the Goddess of Ice.” Seifer’s voice was low and cloying. Slowly but surely Squall’s body relaxed.

Irvine was shocked to see Squall grow pale. His lips turned blue and his breath when he breathed out was visible mist. Like eating a snow cone on a hot day and breathing out of a mouth colder than the surrounding air. Quistis hadn’t mentioned anything like this.

‘Shiva?’ Squall knelt in the dark and the cold.

‘Yes My Lovely One. You have been away from me for so long.’ A blue light lit up Shiva’s throne. Shiva opened her arms and Squall stumbled forward to kneel at her feet. The goddess trailed an icy hand over his bowed head.

‘What happened?’

‘The Sorceress, with her ice magic, pushed me away from you. She sunk her icy tendrils into your mind and showed you a world different from your own.’

‘So nothing from the dream was real.’

‘Some of it was. It will be up to you to determine the fantasy from reality but one thing is very real. Ultimacia searches for the Time Child and you must stop her. Gather my allies and keep my rival’s child close.’ Shiva pointed away from herself to a similar yet completely opposite throne very far away. On it sat a fiery god and at his feet knelt the blonde head of his rival.

Squall felt a warm hand in his own and concentrated on it as he came out of the trance. When he opened his eyes he looked up into Seifer’s green eyes. “Don’t leave me.”

“Never.”

“You need to talk to Ifrit. See what he says about this.”

“I will. Later. I’ve been too worried about you to quiet my mind.”

“What the fuck was that? Quistis tried to explain the whole GF thing on the fly but it was nothing like that!” Irvine let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as Squall’s skin returned to its normal olive tone. He shuddered.

Seifer chuckled. “Squall and I experimented with the GF connection. We both have an extreme compatibility with Shiva and Ifrit. I found a book in the library talking about using meditation to go into a trance so that you can talk to your guardians literally face to face.”

“Yeah I think I’ll pass. By the way Squall here’s Diablos back. I never could connect to him right.” Irvine handed the small black gem shaped like a lamp back to Squall.

Squall looked down at the inky black gem that seemed to absorb light. He looked up to see Seifer staring at it longingly. “Here Seifer. I’ll bet you’ll get along with him a whole lot better than I did.”

Seifer took the lamp in his hand and to Irvine’s shock disappeared.

“Okay. What? That didn’t happen when you gave it to me!”

“Diablos knew he was only being loaned to you. Seifer he has to test.” Squall explained. He was a bit worried though. He’d beaten the big devil after it’d just awoken from a long nap and he’d had Selphie and Zell to help him. Seifer was alone.

“Okay…I gotta go. I got a couple of junior marksman I promised to tutor. I’ll be back this evening with dinner. How’daya like your steak?” Irvine backed out slowly. GF’s creeped him the fuck out.

“Blue.”

“Why am I not surprised? See ya.” Irvine left with a wave and a final worried look at the place Seifer had been sitting.

Squall was a bit worried too though he was trying not to show it. He looked around the room and found most of his gear sitting next to his bed. He pulled his jacket over to him with a pout. There was of course a huge hole on the right side both front and back. Very little blood though. He played with it a bit. He loved this coat. The ice hadn’t hit the zipper or the fur collar. Maybe he could get some leather and patch it?


	2. Chapter 2

Squall eventually slipped back down to lay on his back with his jacket in his lap. The doctor came in to check on his wound. The paste was helping the skin to thicken up and heal faster. Slowly but surely the pain when he moved faded. The doctor talked about physical therapy and Squall explained his plans for it which the doctor tentatively approved. He didn’t ask where Seifer was. He probably figured that now that Squall was awake the other boy was finally getting some sleep.

Squall tried his best not to think of the dream. He begged a weapons magazine from the nurse but it was difficult not to think about gathering weapon materials in the dream when reading about the next best thing in gunblades. He pulled out his card deck to sort through but part of his brain remembered a much larger more complete deck. It was frustrating. How had the Sorceress created a dream world that included things like cards and weapons but forgot about food and training?

Finally Seifer reappeared looking much the worse for wear. Squall quickly handed him the glass of potion tinted water.

“Ugh. It was a war of attrition but I finally whittled the bastard down. Good thing Irvine hadn’t made him stronger.” Seifer gulped the water down before pulling his grey trenchcoat off. He was hot, sweaty and filthy with blood and icor.

Squall concentrated for a moment before bringing up a Cura to cast on the other gunblader.

“Thanks. I need a shower. They letting you out of here yet? We got a dorm room assigned to us.”

Squall shrugged which was definitely a sign he was getting better. His muscles barely hurt.

Seifer opened the door of the room and flagged down the doctor who took in Seifer’s dirty attire with a sniff.

“Been training I see.”

“Yeah.” Seifer waved the assumption off. Galbadian Garden turned up their noses at GFs. “Can I take Squall back to our room?”

“Yes. Bring him back here tomorrow morning and I’ll see about clearing him for physical therapy. He said you’d work with him on that?”

Seifer nodded knowing Squall well enough to imagine what he had in mind. He’d have to get in contact with Fujin and Raijin to bring their stuff to them.

“Okay then. Good night.” The doctor signed something over at the nurse’s station and gave it to Squall as he walked out with Seifer.

The boys had a brief fight over which one of them was going to carry Revolver that Seifer won. Barely.

* * *

Galbadian Garden had those showers in the dorm rooms that dropped a plastic tub from the ceiling with a retractable shower curtain. Seifer got in first but afterwards filled a bucket for Squall to take a sponge bath to keep his bandage dry. Finally Squall fell into the bottom bunk while Seifer crammed his large frame into the top with a grumble that they were switching as soon as Squall was better on his exhausted lips.

Irvine came looking for them a couple of hours later with three steak sandwiches, a huge container of cheese fries and some super thick milkshakes. Tagging along behind him were two familiar faces.

“Fuj! Raj! And you brought our stuff?! How’d ya know?” Seifer greeted them boisterously as ever.

Squall gave them a head nod from where he was devouring his sandwich. He was starving.

“Eh Headmaster Cid said to give this to you, ya know?” Raijin looked awkward as he handed the letter to Seifer. Fujin and Squall stilled as the big blonde opened it. A letter from the Headmaster was almost never good. Dismissals came in letter form.

Seifer’s eyes widened as he read before he threw his head back and laughed. He handed the missive back to Raijin who read it in confusion before handing it to Fujin. She scanned it quickly with one eye before looking up at them surprised. “SEED?!”

Squall raised his eyebrows but didn’t stop eating. He shoved some cheese fries into the ranch sauce provided and stuffed the cheesy, bacony goodness into his mouth. Technically he knew it’d only been a few days since he’d eaten but it felt like a year with the memories of the dream bouncing around his skull. Food just seemed to taste better. Real in a way he was having trouble nailing down the rest of the world.

“What’s it say?” Irvine asked.

“Fucking Headmaster Cid. He made me a SeeD!” Seifer threw himself back in the chair next to Squall. “Get this. He uses a bunch of big words but apparently they’re calling my brief sojourn as a sorceress’ knight quickly thinking on my part to infiltrate the enemy. Based on my efforts to assist, assist? Are you fucking kidding me? Assist the team of assassins in their efforts to kill the sorceress I’m being made a SeeD going forward. I’m to remain stationed at Galbadian Garden for the time being while helping Squall recover then we’re to await further instructions.” Seifer laughed again. “That crafty devil.”

“Congratulations Seifer?” Irvine said. He wasn’t quite sure it was. While Seifer was laughing it almost looked like he was trying not to cry.

“You don’t get it. I’ve taken the SeeD exam seven times so far. I’ve failed it each time. I’ve been suspended a lot more than that but they couldn’t kick me out unless I made SeeD or I turned twenty-one. Well it seems the Headmaster finally saw his opening. He makes me a SeeD and keeps me stationed somewhere far away. He’s finally found a way to kick me out of Garden.”

“You can’t know that’s the reason.”

“I’m a rank one. On probation. Which means I can’t take the exams to increase my rank and therefore my pay for the next six months.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

Squall frowned. That seemed suspicious to him. Memories of waking up in D-District prison flashed through his mind. “Did Quistis, Zell and Selphie make it home okay?” he asked Raijin and Fujin. Fujin nodded.

“Yeah they was in the Headmaster’s Office when we were called up to see him, ya know. Looked like they was getting reamed out, ya know.” Raijin grinned.

Squall frowned and pulled the letter out of Seifer’s fist. He read over it. Then read it again trying to read between the lines. “Irvine would you consider yourself a problem child here in Galbadia?”

“Yeah kind of. Technically I graduated last year but GFs creep me the fuck out and I have no desire to join the army. Martine likes to say I’m the best sniper they got, and I am, but I know he’d like to get rid of me if he could. Technically right now I function as an instructor’s assistant.” Irvine shrugged and took a long sip of his milkshake. He offered it to Fujin with a winning smile and she took it without so much as winking at him before walking over to sit on Squall’s bunk. He had a feeling he wasn’t getting it back.

“Fujin, Raijin? Were you just sent to bring us our stuff or are you being assigned here too?” Squall asked. There was a chill creeping up his spine as he remembered GardenMaster NORG’s words “Serve the SeeDs heads up on a silver platter and pretend we follow the sorceress. FuFuFu”

“We’re being assigned here. Headmaster knew better than to break up the posse, ya know. We didn’t want to mention it but we got promoted as well, ya know. For delivering the message to Headmaster Martine. Rank 2.” Raijin cringed as Seifer and Fujin glared at him.

“We have to get out of here.” Squall said. He stood and pulled a clean black shirt out of his gear and awkwardly began to pull it on over his bandage. Fujin hopped up to help him after waving Seifer down to sit and eat.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong?” Seifer asked.

“Something from my dream. Shiva said not all of it was fake. In my dream I woke up in D-district prison and was tortured. The sorceress wanted to know what SeeD meant. Like there was some secret we were given when we graduated. The rest of the ‘assassinate the sorceress’ team was imprisoned too and we were to be tortured one by one.” Squall pulled on his belts and Seifer stood to pull his own gear on in response to Squall’s haste. “After we escaped and returned to Garden. We just barely beat the missiles home. And then Garden was mobile...”

Literally everyone else in the room started looking equal parts concerned and confused.

“Never mind that part.” Squall lifted a hand to his facial scar and fingered it in frustration. “The GardenMa- faculty decided the best way to appease the Sorceress’ anger and get her to leave Garden alone was to give her the SeeDs who tried to kill her. She never saw Quistis, Zell and Selphie. She only saw Irvine, me and Seifer. And Rinoa but she was there on accident.” Squall hand waved the dark haired girl’s presence. “Now he sends Raijin and Fujin back here and makes all three of you SeeDs calling Seifer’s actions part of the plot.”

“They’re gonna hand us over to Sorceress Edea.” Irvine muttered. He ran a hand down over his face with a growl. “That bastard Martine. That’s why he was looking at me so smugly today.”

“We have to leave. Grab your gear.”

“Where can we go? Standard procedure is to head to a Garden, ya know. Where do you go when you’re running away from one?” Raijin asked.

“Irvine. You said your family lives near here. Could they hide us?” Seifer asked.

“Yeah but my family’s address is in my student record. You think if I go missing my family isn’t the first place they’re gonna check? I ain’t bringing this shit storm down on them.” Irvine vetoed that plan immediately.

“Fujin think you can break into Irvine’s records and wipe out his home address?” Seifer asked.

The pale haired girl nodded and pulled a laptop out of her bag. She crawled under the desk to hook into the main cable line and sat down in the floor cross legged sipping on Irvine’s milkshake as she waited for it to connect.

Squall hid a smile as Seifer started giving orders. He remembered standing on top of the stolen prison vehicle with the other five looking up at him with bright, expectant faces demanding he make a decision. He shook his head. Why would anyone ever expect him to be a leader? Quistis was right there. She outranked him in years and experience. She should have taken charge. He frowned. But she hadn’t taken charge even before the mission. She’d started deferring to him right from the start in Timber. She let Martine assume he was the leader when Martine should have known better. They’d all looked to him at Caraway’s too. A dimmer memory tried to make its way forward but it was foggy and distorted like when he tried to remember Rinoa at the ball. The Garden from the Training Center all lit up at night. He gripped his head and felt Seifer wrap an arm around him.

“Cold and deep and soft is the snow.” His rival’s voice, slow and hot in his ear, let him slip into the beginnings of his trance and Shiva’s cool fingers carded through his hair. The pain of memory receded.

“Every time I try to remember anything from the night of the ball my head starts to pound.” Squall muttered as Seifer sat him down on the edge of the bed.

“What about the dream?” Irvine asked.

“Still clear as a bell.” Squall told him. He looked up to see Irvine frowning. It was rare to see the jovial cowboy frown…wait no it wasn’t. Irvine never frowned in his dream. He was always upbeat. The Irvine he’d come to know that day and the one he remembered from before the dream had a wider range of emotions. He’d been carefree and defiant and flirtatious and defensive. He’d been apprehensive and laconic. He’d been angry and depressed. In the dream Irvine seemed to have one setting. Enthusiastic flirt. Even when telling them about the orphanage it seemed like an angle to get closer to Selphie. “Are you really that much of a flirt or is it an act?”

Irvine chuckled. “I flirt when I can. It’s fun. Doc says it’s a coping mechanism.” He snorted disdainfully. “But don’t worry I know when to button down and get serious. Seems like now’s the 1time huh?” His handsome face twisted into a sardonic smirk. “You’ll need more time to recover before we can do anything too crazy. We get out of here then what? Galbadia’s got the largest army on the planet and SeeD the most well-trained private army ever. How long can we expect to hide from them?”

“Galbadia has one advantage over SeeD. That’s the impetuses to them throwing us to the wolves. Long range missiles. If we can take out the missile base the Gardens won’t have to fear them anymore. SeeD’s more than a match for them otherwise.” Squall knew this to be true. Galbadian Garden had come at Balamb Garden with everything they had and between the ridiculously over trained student body and the SeeD’s who were a one man army in and of themselves they hadn’t stood a chance.

“Okay. That’ll be easy enough. No one’s ever tried that before, ya know.” Raijin scoffed from where he was eating the last of Seifer’s cheese fries.

“No. No one has tried it. I was on a SeeD exam paid for by Galbadia for SeeD to come up with a plan of how they’d do it. They have watch towers everywhere and the place is perfectly flat. They’ll see us coming a mile away.” Seifer pointed out.

“In my dream I sent Irvine, Quistis, and Selphie to infiltrate the base with a stolen military vehicle and some uniforms they found inside. With Irvine doing the talking they walked right in and sabotaged the missile launch and then set the place to self-destruct.” Squall frowned. “Why do I remember it like I was there with them? I was hijacking a train back to Balamb at that time. I fell asleep on the train while Zell was driving…and I dreamed I was Selphie…”

“What dream is he talking about ya know?” Raijin asked.

“Squall had a dream while he was KO. The Sorceress gave it to him.” Seifer explained while he watched Fujin’s screen. She was running some kind of program to break into Galbadia’s system. Looked kind of bored while doing it too.

“So the Sorceress gave you this dream, ya know? Why would she give you a dream that helps you?”

“Because the Sorceress we saw at the parade isn’t the real sorceress. She’s being possessed too. That’s why she made herself some kind of matron that I wouldn’t want hurt in the dream. Shiva said the one thing in the dream that was definitely true was that Ultimacia was searching for the Time Child, Ellone, and that it was up to us to stop her. In the dream Ultimacia was this sorceress from the future. She’d found a way to send her mind and power to the past. This machine Odine builds. With it she takes control of Edea then Rinoa then Adel. Then she finds Ellone and achieves time compression. I’m not explaining time compression, just know that it’s bad.” Squall strapped on Revolver defiantly.

Seifer frowned but holstered Pistol on his back. He grabbed up their gear and started pulling it away using the GF’s innate warp ability.

Irvine looked disturbed by Seifer’s actions. “If that plan worked in your dream, there's no reason it can’t work this time. The big vehicle Caraway sent us out of the city with is still in the parking lot. I got the keys. I don’t know if there’s any uniforms in there though.”

There was a breath of cold on the back of Squall’s neck and he was reminded. “Where does Galbadia store their GFs?”

“We don’t use GFs here.” Irvine said.

“B3.” Said Fujin from the floor. Apparently she was through with her milkshake and with Irvine’s student file. If they’d bothered to look they’ve have seen the pale girl had replaced farm in Timber with Junk Shop in Dollet. Then she’d gotten bored and started breaking into encrypted files for fun.

“What?”

Fujin lifted her laptop up to the desk and rolled herself up to her feet. She pointed at a picture of a three headed dog that was heavily chained and sedated on a video feed. Another one showed a large machine hooked up to a conduit. It looked like it was being used as a power source.

“Cerberus. We’ve got to get him out of there before we leave. You especially Irvine. That’s Alexander too.”

Irvine looked very concerned about the dog before jumping back from the screen. “No thank you. You can keep your creepy GFs to yourself.”

The Balamb SeeDs looked insulted on the behalf of their GFs.

Squall sighed. “In the Dream you were the only one Cerberus would have anything to do with. He said he could smell your love of dogs.”

“Dogs yes. Giant, three-head Guardian Force dogs? Nuh uh.” Irvine backed away with his hands up.

“You would leave that poor defenseless puppy down there all alone while they continue to do unspeakable things to him?” Seifer asked in a cloying voice.

Fujin turned the screen to face Irvine and started bring up series of pictures of scientists shooting the dog with cannons and cutting him open.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll come.”

“Right Raijin, Squall you get the vehicle ready. Irvine, Fuj and me will get Cerberus and Alexander. Raj?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t let Squall overdo it. His wound’s still healing.”

Squall glared at the tall blonde before grabbing the keys from Irvine and following Raijin out.


	3. Chapter 3

The big yellow vehicle had three uniforms in the back and despite protest Squall claimed one of them.

“I know where the controls are to stop the missiles and blow the place up. Fujin should come because what I don’t remember she’ll probably just know. Irvine, with his Galbadian accent can do the talking to get us through the gate.” Squall just hoped the access cards from this vehicle worked the same way the access cards from the prison vehicle had.

Seifer frowned and crossed his arms but silently acknowledged Squall had a point. “Then what? We blow up the missile base then head back to Balamb?”

“And get it mobile if we can.” Squall quietly thought for a few minutes. “Maybe we should head for Timber instead. Try to get to FH for some help first. I’d love to retrieve Ragnarok but it’s not like we can just head to Esthar and offer to be shot into space to retrieve it.”

“Ragnarok?”

“This big red airship used to transport the containment unit holding Adel into space. One of three actually. That’s how Esthar got rid of her. Then they closed their borders fearing retaliation from other sorceresses for what they did. Adel’s still got a bit of power even inside her cell however and she infested the ships with monsters which killed the crew. Now they just float around the moon lost.”

“Hyne that must have been a crazy ass dream.” Raijin said as he shook his head.

Fujin leaned in looking interested at the mention of an airship.

“The worst part is I don’t know how much of it is fake versus how much of it is real. Shiva said it was a bit of both and it’d be up to me to figure out which was which.”

“Okay back on track. We head to FH why?”

“The Gardens are all modified Centra shelters. FH is full of pacifists but they used to be Esthar technicians. They helped rebuild the Gardens into the stationary buildings they are today. Last time the Headmaster sent me down to the MD level and Rinoa, Zell and I just kind of stumbled around until we found out how to activate it.” Squall face palmed remembering how he’d just mashed buttons randomly, hoping, praying that one was the right one. Which was especially stupid given that Zell, who did have a tremendous amount of mechanic knowledge, was just standing right there.

“TRUE.” Fujin said. Everyone turned to look at her. “READ.” She said as an explanation. Fujin’s throat was damaged in the same accident that took her eye. As a result she kept her sentences and words extremely short as talking was painful for her.

“I’m definitely taking you down with me when we go.” Squall’s lips quirked upwards for a second. “Zell’s supposed to know a lot about mechanical stuff but when we were down there he never said a word. Afterwards when we were moving the Headmaster kept calling me up to the bridge as if I had a single fucking clue how to control the damn thing. Instead of, ya know, getting the Engineering instructor to figure it out. Looking back at it now there’s a lot of things that stand out in the dream that just don’t make any sense.” He shook his head. “The biggest being the lack of food. I never ate while I was in the dream. Like ever.”

“Not even your caramel?” Seifer asked. He knew Squall kept caramel secreted away. He’d bet 50 gil that Squall had at least ten pieces hidden about his person right this second.

“I didn’t sneak caramels, I didn’t play my guitar, I didn’t read any of the new battle series, I didn’t go to the training center. Seifer, I didn’t do my katas!” Squall bit out sounding increasingly frustrated. “The dream took place over several months and I spent those months doing the strangest things like chasing chocobos and playing cards but not eating. I was hugely stressed but didn’t do any of my normal hobbies to help myself calm down.”

“Well that makes sense ya know. The sorceress who gave you the dream. She doesn’t know you real well, ya know? And you weren’t to stay in the dream so maybe she just covered important stuff. Like cards can be moded, ya know. Get materials for weapons and potions. It’s cheaper than the shop sometimes, ya know.” Raijin commented from the driver’s seat. “And Chocobos…well they’re for getting to hard to reach places, ya know.”

“Yeah. I played so many card games I managed to upgrade Revolver to LionHeart. I guess the others did too.” He rubbed his forehead. “The Bismarck is the ultimate configuration for your gun right Irvine?”

The sharpshooter looked surprised. “Yeah for my shotgun. I’ve yet to purchase a sniper rifle for my own personal use. Even the basic configurations are expensive. What are you talking about moding cards?”

“It’s a GF ability. Not a common one. You can weaken a monster and then turn it into a card. That’s how many of them are made. Then another GF ability allows you to turn that card into an item. Usually one the monster might have dropped anyway.” Seifer explained. “My GF Ifrit has it.”

“As does Quezacoatl.” Squall added. “Did you get your hands on a Gambler’s Spirit? The Ifrit I got from the Fire Cavern didn’t know Card.”

“You’ve got one of his minions. I’ve got the genuine artifact.” Seifer smirked. “I’m surprised Shiva let you junction to Ifrit.”

“She didn’t. I handed him off to Quistis immediately after I got him. In the dream I was responsible for the care and upkeep of all the GFs. We had fourteen there by the end.”

“Fourteen between how many people?”

“There were six of us but only the point team stayed junctioned.”

“That must have been a mess.”

“It wasn’t easy to keep track of that’s for sure.”

* * *

They debated leaving Seifer and Raijin at the crossroads but after hearing that in the dream Selphie’s team was trapped in the base when it blew up Seifer flatly refused. He and Raijin hunkered down under some tarps in the back while Irvine flashed the pass card and charmed the gate guard to let them in.

Seifer pinned Irvine with a stare. Raijin gave him another over the blonde’s shoulder. “Take care of them. You mess this up you won’t answer to a Headmaster you’ll answer to me.”

Squall and Fujin looked insulted and shared a look of exasperation. Seifer ignored their looks to remind Squall. “Remember not to favor your shoulder. You’re not good to swing Revolver yet so stick to magic. It shouldn’t come to a fight but just in case.”

Squall nodded. “Remember the Galbadian salute is like this.” He demonstrated the awkward feeling brow level salute. “Last time Selphie was discovered because she saluted like a SeeD.”

Fujin shrugged off Raijin’s hand.

“I’m sorry Fuj but you’ve never run a mission without me or Seifer before. I know you’re good but I worry, ya know. Humor me. Be careful.” The jovial man was unusually serious but it was his baby sister he was sending out. Raijin had always been protective of his baby sister. Before the accident that sent them to Garden she’d been bullied for being an albino in a black family. Afterward as she recovered from losing part of her vocal cords and her eye he’d hovered around her. He typically didn’t get a chance to show his concern overtly because of Fujin’s independence and general bossiness. He gave way to her more often than not but when it came to her health he was unbending.

She patted his shoulder and gave him a nod.

The bulkier parts of the Disciplinary Committee watched their comrades disappear with worried frowns.

* * *

“Act like you’re supposed to be here. This place will be crawling with soldiers.” Squall muttered in sotto voce. He squared his shoulders ignoring a slight twinge from his injured one and marched half a step behind Irvine.

Fujin fell in half a step behind him. She squared her body up in an attempt to look bigger.

‘At least she’s bigger than Selphie. The whole uniform just kind of sagged around her tiny frame.’ He thought as they marched in a line. As they passed a guard standing in the doorway he called out to them and Squall smoothly turned to face the older man. Irvine and Fujin were just a half a second behind him.

“You the extra hands they sent to help out with the missile launch?”

‘Fuck they’re going to launch the missiles anyway?!’ Squall thought.

“Yes Sir.” Irvine snapped out the Galbadian salute followed immediately by Squall and Fujin.

“Wet behind the ears rookies. I don’t know what the brass is thinking sending you all here. You’re just gonna get in the way.” The old soldier grumbled to himself for a few minutes before barking out an order. “The engineers need to sign off on this room before I can go on my break. Go find those yahoos and tell them to get here on the double.”

“Yes Sir.” This time their salute was in unison which the old soldier nodded at approvingly.

Squall had briefed them on his trip last time. Despite the old soldier being a curmudgeon there was no reason to think they wouldn’t find the engineers in the same place they found them last time. Sure enough two tall reedy looking guys stood off on a lower level writing numerous measurements on a clipboard.

“Sir the soldier on duty requests your presence. He said you need to sign off on a room so he can go on break?”

The engineer on the right turned to look at them. The engineer on the left ignored them as he continued to take note of things. “You the new rookies? Which one of you is the engineer?”

Fujin raised her hand but didn’t speak.

“Go make sure the power readings are within range. Note them down on the book in there. We’ll come by later and double check your work but we can’t leave here until then. If they’re not in range make the necessary adjustments. I assume you know how to do that right?”

Fujin nodded and saluted.

Together they turned and left.

Getting past the old soldier was easy although he grumbled about lazy engineers at length. Finally he opened the door for them and headed out to the commissary muttering something about getting something to eat.

Once inside Squall stood back and let Fujin and Irvine confer over the power readings. Unlike Selphie they didn’t want to take a chance on alerting the soldiers about their sabotage until it was too late to do anything about it. They set the power to gradually fail over the next hour and then proceeded to open the panel and cut the lines on all the uninterrupted power supplies and drain the gas tank on the backup power generator. Once they were done they put everything back like they’d found it and wrote that the power reading matched the ones before it. Squall mimicked the signature of the proceeding engineer with ease.

They exited the power room and pretended to head back and check with the engineers. However instead they quietly cast sleep on them. Squall cast Doom on them both and then the trio quietly waited. The big machines needed to move the missiles failed first and from around the corner they listened as the guards were all recruited to move the silos in place. Then Fujin quickly darted to the command console while Squall and Irvine held the door to the silos shut. As if the emergency power had failed on the doors.

Fortunately the computer ran on a different UPS and Fujin was able to insert a disc created on the way over to crack the password protected parts Selphie hadn’t been able to access before. There were two missions for the missiles in the queue. Fujin set the missiles to hit the ocean far from any inhabited areas on both missions by changing the coordinates listed for Balamb and Trabia Gardens. Should the missiles fire anyway the computer readout would still say the missiles were going for Garden but would actually miss them entirely.

Finally the three SeeDs entered the room where a Major directed several frantic technicians. They saluted appropriately.

“Rookies? I thought you weren’t going to be here until tomorrow? Memo must have been wrong. Anyway I need you in the backroom. Monitor the power output and make sure we don’t get any interference from that damn comm tower they put up in Dollet. Signal from that thing could mess with the missile’s guidance system. I want one of you in that room at all times. Self-destruct is in there. Last thing we want is sabotage when we’re finally gonna get to launch these damn things after seventeen years.”

They saluted with no little thought to the irony. Once inside they resealed the door and Squall casually lifted a steel pipe from the corner and barred the door from opening. Fujin took her time on this next part. She cracked open the self-destruct code and silenced the alarm. Irvine and Squall set to work disassembling the PA system. Finally after making sure the door to the outside was still working Squall gave Fujin the go ahead. After setting the self-destruct to ten minutes all three of them left by the second door. It was Irvine this time who shoved a few small gil coins into the runners and with Squall’s help jammed the door shut.

Just in time as the grumpy old soldier came back in with a cloud of cigarette smoke. “What are you three doing here?”

Squall privately gave props to Irvine for thinking on his feet as Irvine replied.

“We’re to walk the cable line to double check for any shorts between here and Deling City.” Even his voice reflected the clear frustration with the order and Squall and Fujin quickly shifted their body language to reflect that frustration.

The old soldier laughed and slapped his knee. “It’s good for you! Perfect job for you wet behind the ears youngsters. Leave the important stuff to the more experienced soldiers.” He pointed his thumb to himself with a smug air before strutting through the first door. “Seeya kids. Enjoy that desert sun. Ha!”

Silently they shared a glance before maintaining an even pace back to their vehicle.

“Get everything done?” Seifer asked as Raijin looked them over worriedly.

“AFFIRMATIVE!” Fujin allowed herself a small satisfied smile. A majority of this mission had rested on her narrow shoulders and she felt she’d performed more than admirably. There was slight vibration from her subspace pocket indicating one of her devices had intercepted a message.

Irvine exited the gate without any issues. He’d given the gate the same excuse he’d given the old soldier and the gate guards had laughed jeeringly at them before pointing out the cable’s start. Irvine obligingly turned the vehicle in that direction.

Fujin pulled her console out to see a new message waiting.

SeeD level increased to 5 for successful completion of mission: Infiltrate and destroy Galbadian Missile base.

“WHAT?!” She showed the message to Squall with a confused frown.

“Later.” Squall told her as Irvine called out. “Hold on!”

Irvine put the gas pedal to the floor as the timer on his watch hit one minute left. He veered away from where the cable lay underground and headed towards the beachside road as fast as the janky military vehicle could go. They bounced around inside for several seconds. Seifer grabbed Squall to steady him as they went.

When the explosion happened even with their distance there was a noticeable shockwave that buffered the vehicle. Despite this Irvine kept going. There were supposed to be several blasts and he was going to keep the pedal to the metal until they hit the beach.

After several more shockwaves they finally crested the rise before the beach and descended into the sandy tide. Quickly everyone but Irvine clamored out of the vehicle while Irvine drove it into the surf as much as he could before bailing out himself.

Raijin was there to grab Irvine and pull him away as the waves hit the vehicle and almost toppled it over. The cowboy pulled the helmet off and flung it far out into the ocean as he slogged back up to the beach with the black man pulling the off the metal plates as he went.

On the beach Squall and Fujin were doing the same. All three of them were beyond happy to see the last of the hot, sweaty, smelly, itchy uniform.

They pitched the uniforms into the surf as far as they could. “How long we got before soldiers are crawling all over this place, ya know?”

“I’m more concerned with the blockades.” Squall muttered as he pulled his black trousers up and fastened the first of many belts.

“Don’t be. I know a path over the mountains.” Irvine told them. He replaced his necklace of monster teeth and beaten silver with a relieved sigh. He shrugged his heavy trench coat back on without buttoning his purple vest. Raijin stood in front of Fujin slipping her pants and coat back on with a fierce frown directed towards the cowboy.

Irvine put his hat back on and mockingly saluted Raijin’s big brother's protectiveness with a smirk.

“And I know a route that will keep us away from any roads or rails.” Seifer frowned as Squall strapped Revolver on.

“Are we ready to go then?” Squall asked after running a hand through his messy hair.

“Yup. I got point with Raijin. Irvine and Fuj take rearguard. Squall stays in the middle.” He gave his rival a pointed look.

“As soon as I’m better I’m so kicking your ass.” Squall snarked at him but nonetheless took the middle part.

Once they started out Fujin brought up her console again with a questioning look. “HOW?”

“I honestly don’t know. In the dream I was even made ‘SeeD Commander’,” Squall’s disgusted look showed exactly what he thought of this, “but I never did figure out how they constantly judged our actions. Sometimes I’d lose a rank randomly even when I hadn’t done anything. I do know the answers to the exams though. I already took them once.”

Seifer’s face soured. Likely remembering his probation. Nevertheless he pulled his console out. He hadn’t looked at the new features since he’d gotten the letter. There was a message waiting for him.

**Probation lifted after successful completion of mission: Rescue GF Cerberus and GF Alexander.**

“The Hell!? My probation is lifted. The console says rescuing those GF was a mission.”

They all came to a stop as they pulled their consoles out.

“Mine doesn’t say anything new, ya know.”

“Hmmm…I didn’t gain a rank but it lists the missile base as a mission on my console.” Squall puzzled. He also noted that his rank bar had taken a serious dip after the sorceress mission but had been refilled by the missile base.

“The fuck?! When did I become a SeeD? ‘Promoted to SeeD upon acceptance of mission: Rescue GF Cerberus and GF Alexander.’ I’m rank 4 after the missile base mission.” Irvine tapped the missile base mission to receive a report showing his high marks in subterfuge.

Fujin peered silently at her own console before moving over to let the others see it.

**Mission: Hack Galbadian Garden systems. Rank increase to 3.**

**Mission: Rescue GF Cerberus and GF Alexander. Rank increase to 4.**

**Mission: Infiltrate and destroy Galbadian Missile base Rank increase to 5.**

“You’ve been a busy girl Fuj.” Seifer commented before giving her a proud smile and reaching out to gently squeeze her shoulder.

Fujin lifted her head with a gratified smile.

Squall gave her a gentle pat on the back while Raijin snaked an arm around her and gave his little sis a small hug.

Irvine didn’t touch the small woman but he did catch her eye and tip his hat to her. He’d been on most of those missions with her and he knew she’d been invaluable. He’d also noticed that despite being close to her the other three men refrained from any overt touching. Even her brother. He filed that away even if he didn’t think he had much of a chance with the pale woman he’d always found interpersonal relationships fascinating. People watching was one of his favorite activities though he covered it up by pretending to flirt with everything in a skirt that walked by.

“Let’s raise your ranks. You get paid based on steps taken. We could get paid again before tonight. I’ll give you the answers.” Squall’s console vibrated. “Rank decreased to 17 for cheating.” He frowned down at the console. “…Sorry.” His bar increased slightly.

“Okay seriously how could they know?” Irvine frowned. “Are the consoles recording our every move? There’s no way they’re transmitting data back to the Gardens. Nor that anyone at Garden could be responding to our actions. Especially the ones they can’t know about because they were actions taken against Garden. I mean we’re AWOL right now. Nothing we do should be sanctioned.”

Fujin frowned down at her console. She started hitting a few buttons before growing frustrated.

Raijin recognized that look. “Wait until we bed down for the night Fuj. This really isn’t the time or place for you to hack the console. Hey your bar went down. For what thinking about hacking the console?”

“Is the console itself recording and judging our actions?” Seifer asked. “Is that possible?”

Fujin tilted her head to the side like she was thinking before nodding. “COMPLEX AI PROGRAMMING.” Her bar increased.

“There’s complexing programming then there’s straight up magic.” Seifer complained. He looked at his console distrustfully. Recording his every action. Meaning that every exam, every action he’d taken in every exam. Had this been the true judge? He’d tried to access his exam grades before. Tried to figure out what he’d done wrong. It’d always been blocked though. He was a SeeD now. Maybe he could see them?

“Almost all of Garden’s equipment was made by Esthar. They’re known to have gone further than anyone when combining magic and technology. It makes more sense than anything else.” Squall put his console away. “We need to get going.”

Everyone put their consoles away and continued on their way.


	4. Chapter 4

It was twilight by the time Irvine knocked on the door of the massive farmhouse. A beautiful woman with Irvine’s red-gold hair opened the door and gave him a huge smile.

“Irvy! Oh baby I’ve been so worried. Come on in. You and your friends are just in time for dinner.”

Irvine entered the room removing his hat as he did so. He also removed his long coat and pulled his gun belt off. All of these items he hung and laid on a nearby shelf and indicated the others should do the same. “Mama don’t allow weapons at the table.” He explained.

Somewhat begrudgingly the Balamb SeeDs followed instructions. Though not allowed to use them in certain areas it was generally expected that all students were armed at all times at Balamb Garden. With their backs turned they missed the wide eyes of Irvine’s family as they pulled enormous gun blades out. Fujin’s wheel and Raijin’s expandable staff got some glances as well.

Irvine gave the gathered Kinneas an innocent smile. Being his family they of course didn’t believe this expression at all. He’d sat at the end of the long table filled with two other young men and what appeared to be their spouses based on the features of the two young children sitting between them. At the head of the table sat a handsome older man with steel gray hair. His wife sat directly to his right.

“Introduce us to your friends Irvine.”

“Oh of course.” Remembering his manners with a cringe at the look his mother was shooting Irvine waved towards Raijin. “This is Raijin and his little sister Fujin.” He pointed at each gunblader in turn. “And this is Squall and Seifer. They’re from Balamb Garden.”

“Outdoor class today?” His mother asked.

“Uh not really. Can we lay low here for a few weeks?”

“Lay low? What sort of trouble have you got yourself into boy?” His father asked.

“Aren’t you the sorceress’ knight?” One of the women asked. She was unsubtle about putting her body between the blonde knight and her daughter. The parade had been recorded and televised though the scene at the end with the attempted assassination of been cut.

Seifer frowned and caught Irvine’s eye. He twitched his pinky finger in the sign for trust.

“Oh yeah. Pa fought for Timber in the war. No one’s going be carrying tales back to Galbadia here.”

“Yeah. I was.” Seifer answered with a brooding face.

“Irvine aren’t you forgetting something?” His mother commented dryly.

Irvine looked up with his cheeks full of dumpling. His mother eyed his family and then his friends and then gave him a look. He hastily swallowed. “Oh yeah. My Pa, Trevor. Ma, Cindy. That’s my brother Luke and his wife Nancy and their boy Duncan. There’s my brother Daniel and his wife Trudy and their little girl Tracy. Everybody know each other now?”

“Irvine! Nancy whack him for me.” His Ma ordered appalled at her son’s manners.

Nancy obligingly smacked the back of Irvine’s head which he took with a light wince.

Seifer laughed at him.

“Oh like your manners are so much better.”

Seifer lifted his forearms from the edge of the table and carefully wiped his mouth clean of any chicken grease. His back straightened and he rolled his shoulders back affecting a perfect posture. “Thank you Mrs. Kinneas for a truly magnificent dinner. The food is delicious. I am honored to be seated at your table.” The cultured tones that rolled from Seifer’s mouth caught Irvine by surprise and he raised an eyebrow at his blonde friend.

Seifer’s mouth stretched in a perfectly insincere smile before he sloughed forward again and reached for another piece of chicken. “All joking aside thanks for having us.”

“And the food is heavenly.” Squall bothered to add as he’d been in an acute state of bliss since the first burst of flavor hit his tongue.

“We really appreciate it, ya know.”

Fujin nodded before stating. “THANK YOU.”

* * *

Before Irvine’s mother could prompt him he offered his room to Fujin. The rest of them would be sleeping in the bunkhouse and even if Fujin didn’t care his mother wouldn’t stand for it. Personally he thought Squall could use the larger bed what with his injured shoulder and all but doubted the brunette gunblader would go for that.

The next morning saw Squall standing shirtless in the yard with Seifer nearby as they ran through their gun blade katas slowly. Squall frowning quite a bit when his blade would dip or shake due to the weakness in his healing shoulder. Seifer was sharp eyed for every tremor and quick to call for a rest before making Squall do the movement again even slower.

Irvine, Raijin, and Fujin ran through their own daily practices in a half an hour before being pressed into service helping around the ranch. Raijin told Irvine that even when in perfect shape daily katas for Squall and Seifer took over an hour. There was a reason they were two of the only gun blade specialists in Garden. Not only was the weapon finicky and hard to use, it required twice as much maintenance as a normal weapon. Not only did the gun action had to be cleared, the blade had to be sharpened. The whole assembly got oiled and cleaned daily after each practice and at the end of each day. Today Seifer had Squall cleaning his gun blade whenever his tremors got too bad in order to let his shoulder rest before running through the whole kata again at a snail’s pace.

Fujin pulled an essay up on her laptop for Irvine to read about the effects of GFs on the recovery process. While making Squall do the exercise over and over again seemed counter-productive Shiva was actually helping him the entire time. What would normally take weeks of recuperation for a non-junctioned soldier could be condensed into a few days with the help of the GFs.

That night at dinner Squall was so tired he fell asleep against Seifer’s shoulder after dessert and the blonde gunblader simply grabbed the smaller man by his good arm, lifted him in a fireman’s carry and walked out with him.

“I was watching them today. Working the boy so hard all day on an injured shoulder seems…”

Raijin guffawed. “He’s a SeeD, ya know. Watch him tomorrow. He’ll be almost as good as new then, ya know.”

“Irvine are you a SeeD now?”

Irvine winced at his father’s question. “Would you believe me if I told you it was an accident?’

“No.”

“Well it was. I commissioned for a sniper job that went awry. Afterwards we hoofed it back to Garden. I’m not gonna get into the details but because the mission went so bad it was kind of sort of looking like we were gonna get arrested so Garden could save face. So we snuck out. One of the prerequisites to being a SeeD that I’d never done before was junctioning to a Guardian Force. Things give me the willies. Gave me the willies. Anyway I got one junctioned to me now and apparently since I met every other requirement that makes me a SeeD.”

“Apparently?”

“I really don’t know. We have these consoles and they have Esthar/Centra magic in them. They seem to read our every move and thought. I mean Seifer was on probation and now he’s not. Fuj and Raj are higher leveled now. When I helped Seifer and Fujin rescue the GFs from Galbadia Garden and junctioned Cerberus my console updated to say I was a SeeD. Which we didn’t learn about until the next day. So it really was an accident.”

His family still looked doubtful but Irvine could only shrug. He looked at Fujin helplessly. He was sure she knew more by now about the consoles. He’d seen her with both the console and her laptop hooked up earlier. She gave him a dry look that she gave Raijin whenever he did or said something she didn’t like and Irvine tensed certain he was about to get kicked under the table.

She only rolled her eyes at him however with a small smirk as if she knew he was afraid of her and was proud of it.

* * *

Seifer pulled Squall’s boots off and tucked him into the bunk before falling on his own. He pulled out his console. He’d been exhausted last night and had worked with Squall all day. Finally he might get to see his former test results.

**Accessing education records…..**

**Course transcripts….**

**Exam Results….**

**SeeD Exam Results….**

**1** **st** **….**

**2** **nd** **….**

**3** **rd** **….**

**4** **th** **…..**

**5** **th** **……**

**6** **th** **……**

**7** **th** **…..**

  
  


Seifer took a deep breath and clicked on the 4 th exam. He knew why he failed the first two. He’d been wet behind the ears and went off halfcocked on the first and blew their cover. The second had been a complete clusterfuck from start to finish for everyone involved. No one had passed that one. Seifer had been lucky to survive. Not everyone had.

The third exam Seifer had still been emotionally wrecked from the 2 nd and been thrown into the 3 rd way too soon. He’d gotten the job done but he knew his head hadn’t been right on that one.

The 4 th exam however Seifer had been mentally, emotionally, and physically ready for, he’d done absolutely everything by the book. It had been a textbook perfect exam and Seifer had been absolutely certain he’d passed….until he didn’t.

He’d racked his brain for months going over everything in his head even having Ifrit pull his memories to the forefront in picture perfect clarity. But no matter how he looked at it there was no reason why he shouldn’t have passed.

The 5 th he’d been pretty by the book as well but after that one he was no longer confused. He was angry. He’d done an okay job on the 6 th exam but he’d been even more pissed after not passing it. He privately admitted though he’d probably never apologize for it that he’d taken more than a few of his frustrations out on Squall. Was it his fault the other man was the only one able to give him a worthwhile challenge anymore? Still developing his ki and testing the application thereof on the other without warning in what had been a live spar was a dick move that had ended with both of them scarred up and him having to carry Squall back to Garden over his shoulder.

The 7 th exam…promoting the members of his squad but not him? He grit his teeth and centered himself. Good thing too as he started reading about the 4 th exam. He’d been right; he hadn’t made a single mistake. His scores were as close to perfect as any he’d ever seen. Still at the bottom he was marked as a failure. He flipped through the 5 th , 6 th , and 7 th exams. His scores weren’t as good as the 4 th exam but they were well within range. Still the word FAILED in bright red lettering mocked him. There was nothing written in the reason portion. Just FAILED.

He went back to the first exam. FAILED mocked him again but next to it was written ‘too young; poor impulse control.’ Okay fine he’d known that. He clicked on the second and saw red. FAILED mocked him again but it was the reason next to it that put the console in danger of breaking under his hands. ‘directly responsible for the deaths of 7 other cadets’.

“Bullshit! I had nothing to do with their deaths! Nothing!”

Seifer’s outburst woke Squall who pulled himself up to sit. “What? Whose death? What are you talking about?”

“You remember my 2 nd exam? The one where all those cadets died?”

“That one where you guys were sent to clean out a ruin filled with jelleyes that turned out to be full of tonberrys?”

“That’s the one. I had nightmares about that shit for months afterwards but it wasn’t my fault!”

“Of course not. The info was unreliable and if I remember straight aren’t you the only reason Instructor Trepe survived that one?”

“Yeah. After using up my last phoenix down and being the last one standing I grabbed her and ran. I only managed that because she was closest to me. I dragged her up some stairs and threw her and myself on top of a pillar. I wanted to go back for some of the others but when I looked they were already being devoured and another tonberry was closing in on me. I had to sit up there and wait and watch for hours before the SeeDs came back to help.” Seifer shrugged his shoulders at the shudder running up his spine. He firmly put those thoughts out of his head. Ifrit hid them again without a word. That mission had been a big reason why Seifer had started the meditation in the first place as the horror of watching his comrades being eaten and being helpless to do anything about it had him desperate for a solution that would let him sleep at night.

Squall moved over to sit beside him. The usually non-emotive man leaned against his shoulder firmly. Seifer leaned back. “Why are you bringing this up now?”

“I looked up my SeeD exam results..” Seifer handed Squall the console.

Squall clicked through the first exam and then the second. “The fuck?”

“Right? Who wrote that bullshit? And the rest of the exams. They all say fail but they don’t say why.”

Squall clicked on the third exam. FAILED ‘cadet is clearly racked by the guilt of his last exam. Recommendation: Expelled and charged with murder.’ There was another note under that. ‘Cadet will never be made SeeD but the raw strength of said cadet cannot be denied. He will be placed in a minor position of power to endear him to the school and ensure his loyalty in case of events that lead to Garden’s invasion.’ “You didn’t read the third one I take it.” Squall stated through gritted teeth. Who the fuck wrote this bullshit?

“No I know why I failed that one. I was still fucked up from the second. Why?” Seifer grabbed the console and read the comments. “What the hell?”

Squall looked at the console. “Console. SeeD Almasy had nothing to do with the deaths of the cadets in his second exam. Expunged this accusation from his record and begin an investigation into the true culprit.”

“What do you think that’s going…” Seifer trailed off as the console buzzed a response and came back with a question.

**SeeD Almasy’s record for deaths in his 2** **nd** **SeeD exam are expunged by reason of lack of evidence.**

**Internal Garden investigation can only be initiated by the Captain of the Disciplinary Committee. Does the Captain wish to open an investigation?**

Squall handed the console back to Seifer. The blonde’s green eyes met the stormy blues of his brunette rival. It couldn’t be that easy could it?

“Yes. Open an investigation into SeeD Almasy’s 2 nd SeeD exam and the deaths that occurred at that time. By SeeD Almasy’s authority as the Captain of the Disciplinary Committee.”

The window closed and returned to the Main Menu. Disciplinary Committee menu opened and showed the various cases Seifer had been investigating. Most were closed. The newest one opened and proceeded to show a loading screen for several seconds. Finally a message appeared.

**Information archived. Please enter Garden to access archived data.**

“Fuck.” Seifer said quietly. He closed the console but then reopened it as it buzzed.

**Mission: Started Investigation of deaths of cadets in SeeD Exam**

**Mission: Started investigation of deliberate sabotage of SeeD Almasy’s advancement**

**Rank increase to 2.**

“Grats.” Squall said dully.

Seifer shook his head. “I’m gonna get to the bottom of this. For now I guess I should start taking those rank advancement tests.”

“Okay.” Squall yawned.

“Go to bed. I’m gonna work your ass into the ground tomorrow.”

Squall made a rude gesture and returned to his bed.


	5. Chapter 5

The gunbladers celebrated Squall’s complete recovery a week later with a spar that left the entire Kinneas family, the ranch hands, and the chocobos in awe. Raijin and Fujin however barely looked up from where they were securing the supplies.

“Fucking hell. Remind me to never EVER fight one of you fuckers.”

“Irvine Kinneas LANGUAGE.” Ma Kinneas knocked his hat off with a hard whack to the back of his head.

“Sorry Ma but golly gee whiz that was impressive.” Irvine rubbed the back of his head before replacing his hat. He’d caught it before it hit the ground fortunately.

Despite the clash of steel both men weren’t even out of breath as they sheathed the heavy weapons. After much discussion and argument between the gunbladers it was decided that they would first walk to FH to convince The Master Fisherman to return with them to Balamb via Timber. Seifer was eager to return to Garden so his console could access the archives and argued that Fujin and Raijin were more than prepared to get Garden mobile but conceded to the fact that even then there was no guarantee they’d be able to control it as it was.

At least money wasn’t going to be an issue any longer. Everyone was at a SeeD rank between 14-18. Irvine, Fujin, and Raijin were on the lower end as their combat levels were too low to proceed. Squall and Seifer let them take point as they walked into Timber. Getting the junior members of their team experience is why they’d turned down the offer of chocobos from Irvine’s parents. Besides, the chocobos wouldn’t run across the Horizon Bridge anyway.

Irvine had bucked at being referred to as a junior member of their team but finally conceded that Squall and Seifer had the edge in sheer experience. Between the fact that they were the only ones who’d actually gone through exams and passed both of them had also been doing cadet missions for years and it showed. Seifer was unofficially the leader of their little troop but Squall was a close second. Seifer’s willingness to give orders and his expectation to see them followed put him more at the forefront of their little group than Squall’s passive authority.

“We should stop into Timber. Get a feel for the aftermath of the missile base’s destruction and also restock our supplies.” Seifer suggested as they came up on the entrance of the town.

“SUPPLY.”

“Supply.” Squall and Fujin immediately volunteered for the job that required them to talk the least.

Seifer and Irvine laughed at them. “Yeah yeah. Cowboy, Raijin, and I will do the smoozing and flirting.”

They entered the town to see the guards at ease. That was a good sign. If the place was crawling with more Galbadian soldiers than normal they’d have been tense and nervous. Reluctantly Seifer gave Squall Pistol and ordered Raijin and Irvine to hand their weapons over as well. “Upgrade us if you can or see what we need. Check out what a sniper rifle for Cowboy will cost. I can’t see that not being handy. Taking a page from the Dream try and play as many card games as you can. We’ll pool our cards later and mod if we need to. Should have done that earlier.”

The quieter two of the troop nodded and walked into the Junk Shop as Raijin picked up a cat and started talking to a little girl across the street. Irvine headed into the hotel to flirt with the women there as Seifer headed into town to connect with what resistance members he knew.

They met up at the Aurora Bar several hours later. Squall and Fujin headed to the table where they could see their teammates gathered over a table where Seifer was kicking the owner’s ass in cards. “How’d you make out?” Seifer asked as he waited for the owner to play his last card with clear reluctance.

“Upgraded everyone but Fujin twice. Also we talked to a Train Master who’s willing to loan us a small hand cart if we take FH’s monthly order out with us.”

“You talked to someone?” Seifer chuckled as he swept the cards he’d won back into his pack.

“Fuck you.” Squall said without any heat.

“Let’s head back to the hotel. Raijin got a free room for the night by saving a little girl from getting run over by a train.”

Moding their cards got Fujin her second upgrade which they took care of the next morning. From the word on the street they’d missed the absolute worst of the fallout from the missile base explosion. Official word was that Galbadia had no idea who could have infiltrated the missile base and blown it sky high. Unofficially the Sorceress was blaming SeeD. Dollet had apparently been invaded again for a day but after a through hunt they’d returned to Deling City empty handed. No one was sure what they’d been looking for but the Junk Shop had been of particular interest. Apparently the owner had been arrested. Seifer showed zero remorse for that even after Fujin revealed she’d replaced Irvine’s address with Seifer’s sperm donor.

The next day they headed out on the hand cart with a cart of supplies behind them. Raijin and Seifer traded off every hour with Squall and Irvine. Fujin had taken a turn but the significant difference in weight and strength made the ride jerky. Instead she sat on the back of the cart with their GFs and their new supply of ability items as she mapped out the most optimal combination.

The hand cart made their trip significantly shorter and they arrived at FH that evening. They dropped the supplies off with the hotel owner and got a room. The next morning Squall led them through a confusing tangle of cranes to reach an old man under an umbrella fishing.

“Hello.” Squall said.

The old man turned and looked up at him with a grin. “I was wondering when you’d get here.”

“You…were expecting me?”

“Yup. Ellone showed up here about a week ago. Told me I’d likely be seeing a scarred man dressed all in black carrying an unusual weapon soon. And here you are. You need help getting Balamb Garden mobile? I still got the schematics if you got someone who can tell their ass from their elbow.”

Squall turned and the SeeDs did an awkward shuffle on the narrow catwalk as Raijin and Fujin were pushed to the forefront.

Raijin whistled. “Damn that is a fine rod, ya know. That the Dragon?”

“That it is. You like to fish?”

“Garden mandates that all cadets find at least two hobbies for stress relief, ya know. Seifer and me like ta fish, ya know. And I like to cook what we catch, ya know.”

Fujin rolled her eyes. “SCHEMATICS?”

“Well I-.” The fisherman stopped to look at Fujin. “Now just a minute girly. We’re talking fishing here.”

“Raijin and I would love to sit and talk fishing sir but we are on kind of a tight schedule. If you don’t mind.” Seifer said diplomatically.

“Right then.” The man sighed shaking his head. He opened his tackle box and removed a data drive. “Here ya go missy. You got a console? I see you do. Garden still got a good supply of them things then? Damndest piece of tech Odine ever made those things.”

Fujin looked up interested at that. She raised a hand to her throat and pressed against the scar tissue. Her voice was rough and scratchy as she spoke. “You know how the consoles work?” She winced and coughed a bit.

“How they work in detail? No but I probably know more about them than anyone else you’ll meet outside of Esthar. Hmmm…” The Master Fisherman dug around in his impressive tackle box for a few more minutes. “Aha! Knew I had one somewhere.” He pulled out a smaller data drive and hooked it up to a computer built-in to the tackle box. He quietly uploaded something to it before ejecting the drive. “Here ya go. Nothing specific into the workings there of but it’s a good briefing of what they were originally. The sorceress who helped build the Gardens, Edea, she changed them from their original design so they’d work with the GF interface better.”

“Edea was the sorceress who started the Gardens?” Seifer asked.

“Not the one being paraded around Galbadia if that’s what you’re asking. No the sorceress who built the Gardens was an older lady from Centra. Held the whole continent against Adel until the Lunar Cry was orchestrated. Not sure what happened to her afterward.” The old man shook his head.

“Thank you. This will help us out a lot, ya know.” Raijin said as he peered over Fujin’s shoulder at the display of Garden’s schematics.

Squall stepped forward. “Is it true Esthar used airships, one of which was called Ragnarok, to transport a holding cell for Adel into space?”

The Master Fisherman looked shocked. “How do you know that?”

“The Galbadian Sorceress almost killed me a couple of weeks ago. While I was out I had a pretty messed up dream.” Squall traced his fingers over the scar on his face. “In it I got shot up to the Lunar Base to talk to Ellone, things happened, Adel escaped, the Lunar Base got caught in a Lunar Cry and my escape pod ran into Ragnarok. I cleared the monsters and brought the ship back home.” Squall left out that he’d actually exited the escape pod and leapt into space after Rinoa. That part just continued to fuck with his head.

The Master Fisherman looked at Squall like he’d suddenly sprouted bright red hair and started chanting Laguna! Laguna! “Son there is no fucking way you could have had a dream that specific with that kind of knowledge.”

“My GF Shiva says a Sorceress implanted it but I can’t figure out why. The Dream showed me ways to defeat her or stop her.”

“Esthar is a closed country and that’s some mighty specific things you knew. In fact the only ones outside of Esthar who would know about Ragnarok, the Lunar Base, or the containment unit would be the Mayor and me. I don’t think he ever even told his wife about that stuff. Esthar, they got ways to detect sorceresses too. So I can’t see this new one from Galbadia knowing that stuff either. The only sorceresses inside Esthar are the President’s wife and daughter and…” He paused in sudden realization. “Ellone knew you were coming here…” The Master Fisherman trailed off. “Ellone, she’s the President’s daughter and a sorceress. You ever meet her?”

“Twice. In Garden.” Squall said but Seifer grabbed his shoulder.

“Wait…Ellone. Pretty girl, brunette, green eyes, kind of a round face, real sweetheart?” Seifer was frowning in concentration.

“Yeah.” The Master Fisherman confirmed.

“Remember the bar owner’s niece? Back in Dollet? She used to let us hide out in the basement. Snuck us food.” Seifer told Squall with a frown. His skin was hot as Ifrit shifted his memories around after the girl’s name had triggered a memory.

Squall grew cold as he closed his eyes and Shiva began shifting his memories of a time in his life he’d much rather forget to the forefront. Unnoticed steam rose from where Seifer held Squall’s shoulder. A little girl, a few years older than them appeared in the alleyway they were pelting down away from the yells of Seifer’s old man. She waved them into the back of the bar and snuck them downstairs to hide behind the casks of beer. Green eyes, round face, brown hair, sweet little voice. Squall recognized the young Ellone from the Laguna Dreams but also from his own memories. He opened his eyes. “She wear a white and blue dress? With a green shawl? Short hair just below her ears?”

“That’s her.” The Master Fisherman confirmed. “She runs a kind of mobile orphanage on a big white ship. Famous in Esthar for her charity.”

“You said she was President…Laguna’s daughter?”

“That’s right. Another thing you ought not know. President’s identity is a closely held secret.”

“You saw her in the infirmary right? You were asking Trepe about her. The morning of the exam. What if she did something to you then?” Seifer suggested.

“What? Implanted the beginnings of that crazy dream? Why?” Squall asked.

“Ellone’s a good girl. A good sorceress. She wouldn’t have any truck with this megalomaniac Edea. Maybe she gave you the dream to help her save us all?” The Master Fisherman said.

“If she’s a sorceress why doesn’t she stop Edea herself?” Irvine asked. He’d been quiet so far just absorbing all the information as he tried to form a more complete picture. “Or the President’s wife? You said she was a sorceress as well.”

“Ah well now not all sorceresses are created equal. They have a part of Hyne’s power but which part and how much is a question. Take Adel for instance. She killed a lot of sorceresses and absorbed their powers. This made her quite a bit stronger than your run of the mill sorceress but she started out just having powers related to morphing her hands into claws. Ellone’s not that powerful. She has some abilities related to dreams and she can see past events but she can’t….throw fireballs for instance. Her mother, Julia, also had some powers related to time. They say she can stop time for a few seconds which is a very powerful thing but it’s the only thing she can do. She could no more form icicles than I could.”

“Julia…not Julia Heartily? She’s dead isn’t she?” Squall asked with a frown. Now he was comparing Ellone’s face to Julia’s and slapping himself mentally. The two women held a great resemblance to one another. Greater than Rinoa had to her mother as the raven haired girl took more after her father.

The Master Fisherman frowned. “Lady who sang Eyes on Me? I guess she is. Never met her myself. Julia Loire is the President’s wife.”

Squall frowned and kept the comparison to himself for now but he felt like he’d just made an important connection though he couldn’t see how it mattered right now. “Okay so it sounds like we need to meet up with Ellone somehow. Both here and in the dream though it was nearly impossible because she spent most if not all of her time on the move in that ship.”

“First things first we need to get Garden mobile. Then we can look for Ellone.” Seifer suggested.

Squall sighed. “Man I wish there was a way to convince Laguna to authorize us to be shot into space to retrieve Ragnarok. Having that airship made everything about a million times easier.”

The Master Fisherman chuckled. “From the dream I’d say Ellone agrees. Find her first. She could talk her Daddy into anything I remember. Sweetest little girl in the world. You can see why he did everything he did to rescue her. Stormed into Esthar and let himself get captured to save her from Adel.”

“Wait that really happened?” Squall winced. He still thought of Laguna as a bumbling idiot but even he had to admit that sneaking into Esthar, rescuing Ellone and somehow becoming the leader of the resistance was impressive and coaxing Adel into the containment unit was a stroke of genius. “All of it. The breaking out? The Moombas? Rescuing Ellone? Leading the Resistance? The Containment of Adel? Laguna really did all those things?”

Again the Master Fisherman looked amazed. “There has to be Sorcery at work here. I know there’s no way you could have known about the Moombas. The rest maybe but not the Moombas.”

“He taught them to say his name because words are so important.”

“Yup Ellone really gave you a lot of past memories of her daddy sounds like. Wonder why? Maybe because he was the last man to defeat a sorceress?”

“Maybe.” Squall muttered. In the dream Ellone had said she wanted to change the past. He supposed he’d find out once he caught up with her.

“Thank you for all your help. We’re heading to Balamb now. Once we get Garden mobile we’ll try to steer her here first for repairs. Squall said the mayor was a huge pacifist. Will he help us?” Seifer asked.

“I’ll talk to him before you get here. Explain you’re trying to put down the sorceress with Ellone’s help. It’ll be fine.” The Master Fisherman picked his rod back up just in time for him to get a bite. He chuckled and started expertly reeling the big fish in.

“Goodbye. Hey next break I might come back and get some tips from the Master, ya know.” Raijin said as they walked away. He craned his neck as long as he could watching the old man reel in the catch.

“Welcome to come any time. You kids be safe now ya hear.”


	6. Chapter 6

The trip back to Timber took the rest of the day and they spent another night in the Timber hotel. Fortunately every man was used to upper body work but nonetheless they all took advantage of the hotel’s hot tub to treat the overstressed muscles.

Fujin declined to join them instead taking advantage of the hotel’s cable to listen to a music video channel while she poured over the Garden schematics. She’d quite firmly taken the third bed for herself insisting Raijin and Irvine sleep together instead.

Seifer and Squall curled up together in the bed like a couple of cats long used to cramming themselves in the same bed from the time they were very young. Raijin and Irvine had considerably more trouble before finally sleeping nose to toe unable to deal with their broad shoulders being on the same end.

The next morning they reupped their supplies a final time after a few more card games and checked the news to keep tabs on the sorceress’ movements before finally boarding a train bound for Balamb.

Squall allowed the smallest smile to creep across his face remembering Selphie and her love of trains. He hoped of all the things that were different between the dream and reality that bouncy, violent Selphie at least was the same. He unlocked the SeeD carriage for them all. As the other four exclaimed over the fancy room Squall hunted through the magazine rack and found the latest battle series. He settled in to read as the train got underway.

Irvine sat down next to him with a huff. He removed his hat as he tilted his head back letting his long red hair spill out behind the sofa. “So….do we have a plan? I mean we just gonna strut in and be like ‘Squall had weird dream. Please let us turn Garden into a mobile war machine.’”

“God I’d love to see the look on the Headmaster’s face if that’s what we did.” Seifer commented from the bottom bunk he was reclined on.

“Hmmm…in my dream when we arrived back at Garden everything was in an uproar. The Garden was financed by this Shumi named NORG, the Gardenmaster. He was trying to take control of Garden and the faculty were looking for Cid using training center monsters and the students had no idea what was happening all they knew was that apparently they were suddenly in some kind of civil war between the Headmaster and the GardenMaster. I ran into Fujin and Raijin and told them about the missile strike. They started evacuating Garden. My team and I ran around trying to find Headmaster Cid, found Instructor Xu who said he was actually just hiding in his office. We get there and tell him about the missile strike and he gives us the key for the MD level. The PA was down but by that time we’d told everyone we saw about the missiles.”

“Does this Gardenmaster actually exist?”

Squall shrugged. “I’d never heard of him before that.” He looked at Fujin. “Have you ever seen anything in the computer systems Fujin?”

She was sitting cross legged on the couch between Raijin and the bunk holding Seifer. She frowned for a moment thinking before pulling out her console and pushing a few buttons. She nodded and turned the console towards Raijin to read aloud. “Balamb Garden. Headmaster Cid Kramer. Gardenmaster NORG. Huh? I never noticed that before, ya know?”

“So he exists. Why was he trying to take over Garden?” Irvine asked.

“Money. Garden was originally this idea of raising super soldiers to take out sorceresses. But that costs money. NORG put up the original funds and suggested SeeD become mercenaries in order to keep the money coming in to support Garden. Now there’s a sorceress and Cid’s probably going to turn SeeD’s attention on taking her out. NORG however knows there’s a profit to be made from all the countries shaking in their boots about the sorceress. So they wrestle for control of SeeD.” Squall frowned trying to remember. “In the dream it was implied that NORG was also the one responsible for the order to take out Edea and for throwing us in D-District afterwards. In the dream Edea was Cid’s wife and the matron of the orphanage that raised Seifer, Irvine, Selphie, Quistis, Zell, Ellone, and me. Sending Matron’s kids after her is a really stupid idea even if our memories are jumbled from the GFs.” Squall shook his head and rubbed at his scar.

“This part wasn’t in the dream but it’s still stupid and I feel dumb for not noticing it beforehand but really? Four SeeDs show up with a client asking for sanctuary from Galbadia and they turn us around and send us TO Galbadia with another mission? Fuj? Raj? You were there delivering a message right? Why not send SeeDs with a message about needing a sniper? How did they know we would just happen to arrive at G-Garden in time to be sent out on this mission? Why was I designated the leader? Sure I was leading Selphie and Zell in Timber but Quistis out ranks me and she knew Headmaster Martine personally.” He tilted his head back, mimicking Irvine as pondered that order of events.

“We don’t know what was in the message ya know? It was Headmaster Cid who gave it to us though. Said it was important and to deliver to Headmaster Martine personally.”

“Then you guys took off looking for Seifer right?”

Seifer looked surprised by that. “Why were you looking for me?”

“Squall said you’d been taken prisoner and executed, ya know. We knew there was no way you put up with that, ya know. So we tried to get into Galbadia to find you, ya know. But we couldn’t get through the blockades, ya know. We decided to head back to Balamb, ya know. See if Headmaster Cid knew what was going on, ya know. If there was a mission to extract you, ya know.”

Fujin sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. “FRUSTRATION.”

“Right? We get home and Headmaster gives us promotions and a letter for you saying you were back at G-Garden with an injured Squall, ya know. Seemed real frustrated about something, ya know. Told us to pack up our gear and yours and Squall’s and head back, ya know. Said the Disciplinary Committee was being temporarily reassigned and to take direction from you and Squall once we got there, ya know.”

“You said Chicken-wuss and the rest were getting reamed out when you left. When did they get there?”

“They came in after we’d packed up and were getting our final marching orders from the Headmaster, ya know. He seemed upset to see them, ya know. Asked them to sit down all stern like, ya know. Totally not like him, ya know.”

Fujin nudged him. “FIRST MESSAGE.”

“Yeah he was weird when he called us up with the first message too, ya know. Seemed real worried about something, ya know.”

Seifer frowned. “I wonder what that first message actually was, ya know.” Seifer closed his eyes in frustration that he’d adopted Raijin’s verbal tic. “Somehow I don’t think it was an assassination order.”

“Oh?”

Seifer shook his head. “There’s a good chance Headmaster saw the Timber broadcast right? I let the President go. We all ran off screen. He might have assumed not just me but all of us were arrested. That first message might have been asking for Martine for help extracting all of us with Raijin and Fujin sent along to help.”

Squall frowned. “Raijin, Fujin. Did you see Quistis when you were delivering your message to Martine? She left us at the entrance saying she knew Martine from previous missions. A few minutes later our team was told to head to the second floor waiting room. She came in a few minutes later and told us Balamb Garden was safe and that Seifer had been executed…I…lost it a bit. They were saying all these things about Seifer in the past tense.” Squall grit his teeth. It made him mad just thinking about it. He looked over at Seifer. “Quistis was like ‘I’ve seen troubled students but he was beyond help. Still I guess he wasn’t that bad a guy.’ Zell was all like ‘I hated the guy but he was from Balamb. I didn’t want him dead.’ Rinoa was all distraught like, ‘he was my boyfriend last summer. I have lots of fond memories.’ Selphie was the only one who was real. She’d met you once and she was sad you were dead but she didn’t make out like she had feelings for you that weren’t there.”

“And you?” Seifer asked.

Squall shook his head violently before leaning forward to brace his arms on his knees. “I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it. It made me so mad. That you were gone. That it could happen just like that. Selphie noticed me getting upset. Asked if I was okay.” Squall stood up and paced across the floor. “I yelled at them and stormed out.” He leaned against the bunks looking down at Seifer.

“We saw you, ya know.”

“CRYING.”

“Yeah. That was when we chased after you, ya know. We didn’t see Instructor Trepe, ya know. Figured if you were there Seifer must be there too, ya know.”

“SHOCK.”

“Yeah when you told us about the execution we were just like you, ya know. We couldn’t believe it, ya know. Man if I’d been in a room with them saying whatever you they liked, ya know. Just ‘cause they thought Seifer was dead, ya know.”

“RAGE.”

Seifer rolled to his feet and wrapped a hand around the back of Squall’s neck pulling his head to his shoulder as he looked over at Raijin and Fujin. “I was fine. I mean they wanted to kill me but the sorceress wouldn’t let them.” He frowned. “She told them I was her knight…” He shook his head and turned back to Squall. “I asked that you guys be pardoned. That you were just on a mission for the Resistance but that you didn’t truly oppose her and she said that you’d be forgiven. I don’t know why you were told I’d been executed.”

“You were saying something before Squall about weirdness you should have noticed before?” Irvine asked. He looked between Squall and Seifer speculatively.

“What?” Squall looked over at him. “Oh. I was made leader. I mean Quistis has been a SeeD for three years, an instructor for the last year, our instructor even. Why wasn’t she given lead?” Pain lanced across Squall’s temples. He rubbed his head.

“You mentioned that before back at G-Garden. Something from the night of the ball you can’t remember.” Seifer frowned and lowered Squall to the bunk. “Maybe Shiva would know?”

Irvine frowned and looked away. He saw Raijin shudder and even Fujin looked weirded out. “I’m guessing this thing they do with the GFs is weird even among SeeDs?”

Fujin nodded.

Raijin for once didn’t elaborate. He just shifted over beside Irvine dragging Fujin with him while Seifer sat next to Squall as he went into his trance.

In his trance Squall was surprised to not be greeted with Shiva but instead found himself on a warm beach at sunset. Before him was the golden goddess Siren. He knelt before her. She spoke in an alluring voice but she was extremely matter of fact. “As I was more prominent during the part of the night you cannot remember I will show you the scene. Close your eyes. Listen to the waves and the music.”

The scene started on the balcony. Squall had managed to escape the ball and was instead examining Siren. He’d just junctioned her and was setting her functions when Quistis walked up. Squall tried ignoring her but the lusty professor was as oblivious to his disinterest in her as ever. Her final order? The scene melted away as Quistis led him through the training center into a maintenance area that was apparently being used as a make out palace. Privately he decided to let Seifer know about it especially when he saw a ripped pair of panties in the corner.

There Quistis went on a monologue for several minutes about being demoted due to lack of leadership. Privately Squall thought her blatant come-ons to himself and the dalliances with a few of her other students certainly hadn’t helped. The Trepies were even becoming something of a gang within Garden that was concerning to the Disciplinary Committee. Finally she noticed he wasn’t listening or rather actively trying to ignore her. She seemed to have this mistaken impression they were friends or more or that he gave a single damn about literally anything she had to say. The fact that she literally had to order him to come there with her should have been enough of a hint. He smirked remembering telling her to go talk to a wall. He didn’t know how much clearer he could make it. He was not interested. She muttered something about being a bad teacher with poor leadership skills and that someone was right before running after him.

They had run into Ellone after that and saved her from some monsters. What was she doing in the training center? What were those dumb ass White SeeDs doing that THEY didn’t save her? She called Quistis “Quisty.” like a childhood nickname but Quistis hadn’t recognized her either. The White SeeDs lead her away. The last he saw of her was those big brown eyes looking back at him.

“Thank you Siren.” He said. A rush of waves was his only reply as he came out of the trance.

Seifer was frowning at him. “Siren?”

Squall nodded. “GF I picked up in Dollet. Said she was more prominent that night so she’d show me what I’d forgotten.” He shifted himself up on his elbows.

“Which was?”

“Instructor Trepe got demoted. Due to lack of leadership skills apparently. She ordered me to meet her at the training center after the ball and took me to the ‘secret area’.” Squall rolled his eyes.

“’Secret area’?” Seifer raised with a raised eyebrow.

“Some make out place in one of the maintenance areas.” Squall shook his head looking disgusted. “I don’t know what she expected. She started droning on about being sent on missions together in that suggestive way she does. I told her I didn’t care and to go talk to a wall.”

Seifer barked out a laugh followed by the other three.

“I only met her during the mission but if I understand this correctly. She was an instructor to you all but she was panting after you the whole time, finally sees her chance once you’re promoted and you told her to go talk to a wall?” Irvine snorted. “I don’t get it. She’s hot but why was she fixated on you?”

“Cause she’d already slept with the rest of her class. Except me, who she hated. Squall was the only other one not licking her boots.”

“NO PROOF.” Fujin frowned at Seifer. Not that she gave a damn whether Quistis had slept with the class or not. She just didn’t like the implication that any woman in power must be loose.

Seifer rolled his eyes. “Okay yeah there’s no proof she slept with any of them but come on if they kissed her ass any more than they already do their lips would be permanently attached to her pussy and there’s no proof they aren’t either.”

“Damn makes me wish I did transfer to B-Garden. I wouldn’t mind sometime between those thighs.”

“Careful. Who knows what you’d catch, ya know. OW!” Raijin howled from Fujin’s swift kick to his thigh.


End file.
